Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
KIRILL
The shareholders’ meeting wraps up and the room starts to clear, chairs scraping back as men file toward the door with folders tucked under their arms.
These meetings matter. They keep people confident, and confidence keeps money steady. The legitimate side of what we do isn’t an afterthought, not if we want to stay untouchable, so we give it the attention it demands.
Once everyone is out, my brothers and I stay seated, the four of us alone in the quiet. After a moment, Konstantin steps away to call Emilia, checking on her and the baby she’s carrying.
Their relationship still doesn’t make sense to me. She used to be a Fed, for fuck’s sake. Then again, Aleksei is married to a prosecutor who tried to put him in prison. Some days, I honestly can’t tell who’s going to kill who first.
Anton, my youngest brother, stares out the window, eyes flat, but always observant. I sometimes wonder what goes on in that head of his. Whether he remembers what happened to him as a child or if his mind buried it so deep even he can’t reach it anymore.
Once Konstantin ends his call, he turns back to us and walks to the head of the table, settling into his chair. He leans forward with his palms braced on the polished surface, gaze moving between us before he speaks.
“I heard from Stan. The supply issue won’t be resolved anytime soon.”
Blyat. We need those guns. If we can’t keep our customers stocked with a reliable stream of weapons and ammunition, they’ll take their money elsewhere, and once that happens, the trust we’ve built starts to rot.
In our world, reliability is everything.
You lose it once, and you don’t always get it back.
“Then we find a new European supplier and kill Stan for being incompetent,” Aleksei says.
Konstantin’s mouth twitches, almost a smile. “I know you prefer to solve things with a heavy hand, but that is not always the smartest option. If we kill Stan, we start a war we don’t need. Not when we may find ourselves in the middle of another.”
I lean closer, unsure who he is talking about. “S’kem?” With who?
“The Whitlocks.”
Every muscle in my body goes rigid as soon as I hear that name. They play the part of wealthy ranch owners quite well, but men like us in the underworld know they’re just as dirty as we are.
“What the hell did they do?” Aleksei asks.
When they first opened that bed and breakfast and horse rehab facility a few years ago, it was a problem.
We overlap in the same lanes—guns, gambling—but after some tense negotiations, we stuck to an arrangement.
They stay in the South and out West, while we keep our clients on our side of the country, from Minnesota to Maine. They haven’t encroached…so far.
“Seems like Harlan may be getting greedy,” Konstantin says, speaking of the patriarch of the family.
I knew it wouldn’t last. Svolichy. Bastards.
“If it’s true…” Konstantin goes on, leaning back, the quiet ire under that calm facade obvious. “If he thinks our supply issues mean he can swoop in and play hero, then we will have to remind him it does not work that way. Not with us.”
Aleksei’s jaw clenches, a curse firing out of him. “Ya yevo mamu yibal.”
“Do you want us to pay them a visit?” I ask, knowing death is the one lesson most people learn from.
“Not yet. I have some feelers out, and if it gets to that point, we will have to set up a meeting first. If it fails, then we kill them all.”
Aleksei pushes back from the table, adjusting the cuffs of his dress shirt like this conversation is wasting his time. “I don’t know why you keep waiting. If they disrespect us, we hit them now and ask questions later.”
Konstantin sighs, used to Aleksei’s ways. “You know I love you, brother, but you do not know how business works.”
Aleksei lets out a short scoff. “Yeah, we know. The great Konstantin is the boss and we are your peasants.”
“That is not what I said.”
“You didn’t have to.” The look he gives him is the same one he gives men right before he breaks them.
Konstantin doesn’t take the bait, just holds Aleksei’s gaze like he’s weighing whether to continue or let it slide.
Aleksei pushes up from his chair. “If we’re finished, I have to go.”
“Yes.” Konstantin reaches for a few folders, stacking them neatly as he stands. “We’re done.”
We all get to our feet, and even though the conversation is over, the tension doesn’t leave with it. It just waits in the quiet like smoke.
Konstantin is already turning toward the door when I catch him with the question I’ve been holding back since before we even sat down.
“Can you take Lev tonight?”
I hate leaving him with the housekeeper. She’s capable, but she isn’t family, and I’d rather my son be with people who know him when I can’t be there.
Konstantin nods without hesitation. “Of course. Emilia and I will be happy to have him.”
Aleksei leans in with a crooked smile. “I’m available too.”
I snicker. “You’re too busy ignoring your wife to babysit my son.”
His smirk twitches like he’s going to laugh. Then it dies, and the Russian he mutters under his breath sounds a lot like he’s deciding how many different ways he could kill me without Konstantin getting annoyed.
Anton doesn’t offer, and he never would. He hasn’t offered to watch Lev once, and it isn’t his fault. He changed after our father smashed a glass bottle over his head and left him bleeding on the floor when he was only nine. When he woke up hours later, whatever made him human was gone.
In its place was exactly what our father wanted most: a weapon who doesn’t feel. A killer with no conscience. Someone he could use in whatever way he wanted—and that’s exactly what he did.
The elevator opens to the garage, and Aleksei falls in step beside me with that grin he gets when he’s about to start running his mouth.
“So, where are you off to tonight? A date?”
I shoot him a look that should shut him up, but it only makes his smile widen. He knows how to get to me and I, of course, know how to hit him right back.
His eyes sharpen with interest. “Is it the homeless girl? You taking her somewhere nice? Somewhere with chairs that don’t smell like grease?”
“Shut up.” I’m already moving toward my car. “I have things to handle.”
Aleksei chuckles under his breath. “Sure, you do. Try talking to her for once. Maybe get her some roses.”
“Worry about your own lady problems,” I tell him. “Last I checked, you’ve got a wife you’re pretending doesn’t exist because you’re scared she might throw you off a bridge.”
His face goes flat. “Edi na khuy.” Go fuck yourself.
A faint smile touches my lips.
Konstantin drops a palm to my shoulder. “Do what you need to do. Lev will be fine.”
I nod, knowing it’s easier than trying to explain something I don’t even understand myself.
Why does Sloane matter to me?
We split without another word, engines roaring one by one as we peel out of the garage.
By the time I hit the road, Sloane is already there in my head, lodged there where I can’t shake her loose. The way her cheeks go pink when she catches my eye. The way she walks around in those worn-out sneakers that I want to replace.
But she isn’t mine, and what I have to do tonight is not a date.
It’s worse. It’s necessity.
SLOANE
It’s past ten when I step out of the diner, the neon sign buzzing behind me as I cross the lot and unlock my car. I slide into the driver’s seat, give the lot a quick scan out of habit, then start the engine.
My piece-of-crap Volkswagen coughs to life, which is still a minor miracle. It’s the only car I’ve ever had, and the last time it broke down years ago, the mechanic fixed it for free. God knows why.
At first, I thought he was going to ask me out or something, but he just did it.
Said to consider it a goodwill gesture and to pass it on.
I did. Bought a woman’s coffee the next day even though I only had a twenty to my name.
Still, it felt like the right thing to do.
Don’t need the universe giving me any more middle fingers.
I’ve had quite enough to last a lifetime.
I pull out of the lot, easing onto the road and letting the building disappear behind me. I don’t even know where I’m going next. Somewhere dark enough to park without the cops spotting me in the back.
The road stretches out in front of me, familiar turns rolling by as my thoughts drift to my new promotion. If Camille finds out about it, she’ll demand more money. And I’ll have to give it to her because I don’t get to argue when she’s holding everything I love hostage.
A stop sign comes up and I slow, turning right—and suddenly, headlights turn with me. The vehicle maintains a safe distance, but I still check to make sure it isn’t following me.
My grip tightens on the wheel as I keep going, forcing my speed to stay even. When I turn left this time, the headlights continue to stay in my rearview.
A black SUV comes into view, dark windows reflecting nothing back at me. The space between us doesn’t close, but it doesn’t widen either, and the longer it stays there, the colder my blood runs.
A right turn appears, and I take it. So does the SUV.
My nerves buzz through me, fear blooming and dragging memories up from places I keep locked down. Barrett’s face flashes through my mind, then Eli’s. Men I’ve fought like hell to stay invisible from.
But what if they’ve finally found me? What if all the careful choices, all the years of staying small and quiet, didn’t matter at all?
Another turn. Then another. The SUV stays with me.
Oh my God. It’s them. They’re gonna kill me.
Dreads clogs up my throat, and Milo flashes before my eyes like he’s here with me. His laughter and the way he’d tell me he loves me tear at my heart.
I can’t die. Not when my baby needs me.